Rover 111gsi HELP urgent!!!

The message from crewroom snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (CraigMac) contains these words:

How about some symptoms?

Does anything happen when you turn the key? Do the lights dim when you turn the key? When you say the battery's at 12V - is that with the engine running or not? If not - what's the voltage with the engine running? Have you checked the battery>body and engine>body earth? Why have you put bump-start in inverted commas? Is it some sort of not quite "bump-start"?

Why is this urgent? Urgent to you do you mean or urgent to anyone else? Can't see your car not starting making a scrap of difference to me. Maybe you mean more urgent than anyone else's questions on here. If so why is that? Do you think we should answer your question with some sort of high priority compared to other people?

It's a bit like those 'baby on board' stickers you see on the back of cars. It doesn't make anyone else less likely to crash into them. It just pisses everyone else off.

Now if you'd left off the 'urgent' bit and also posted some symptoms like does the bloody car even crank over when you turn the key you might get some help.

Put a VOLT meter between the earth post of the battery and the metal of the engine..... get someone to crank it..... If the voltage is above 1 volt then you have a break/high resistance in the earth lead... repeat the step between the positive battery post and the solenoid switch lead that GOES TO THE WINDINGS of the starter motor... get someone to crank it... voltage above 1 volt then you have a break/high resistance in the positive lead.......... if all is ok then bridge the solenoid switch energising spade to positive (Make sure car in neutral) and it should crank... if it does then fault lies somewhere between feed/switch/starter.... If it doesn't then suspect starter........ remember to test battery before you begin..

JK

That'll be nudge-start. It's for very small engines - you put it in first and give it a gentle nudge and off it goes, rather like a sewing machine pedal thingy.

Si

The message from "Mungo \"one shed\" Toadfoot" contains these words:

I had an Allegro like that. Bump starting it meant opening the door, scooting along with one foot and then dropping the clutch. I don't s'pose you needed to be doing more than about a mile an hour for it to work.

Well said Dave - you saved me having to type all that out.

Faulty ballast resistor.

Steady on.

Although I agree that people often use the word urgent incorrectly which is annoying. Mostly this is when they mean important. No need to flame the poor guy for saying it though, afterall, it might be to him - his wife might be 9mths pregnant and having contractions - that would be both urgent and important! like me, you don't know...so lets give him the benefit of the doubt this time.

As for these missing symptoms, I would say the 12v at the battery with the engine running is a reasonable sign that the alternator is dead and the battery probably stewed if it will not turn over or start. I would go for a trickle charge and an investigation into the alternator.

Scott (picking up a fire blanket and hiding under it)

Can't be the ballast resistor as the car runs when bump started, i.e. with the ballast resistor in series with the coil primary.

When the ignition key is turned to 'start' the ballast resistor should be shorted out so that the full battery voltage is applied to the coil. Perhaps this circuit is faulty and the ballast resistor is not being shorted out when the starter motor is turning??

I see you're another one of the idiots for the filter! Why bother posting when you have nothing to say that is of any interest to anyone else. The original sender will find people in the group will help him. It's often the idiots/people who know absolutely nothing that will post a sarcastic pointless message like yours. If you had any real knowledge or experience you would have helped - but because you don't, you can't help - so why waste everyone's time posting.

That's really, really funny. Before you go spouting your words of wisdom, take a look through the group's history and see how much Dave Barker's contributed, both in terms of knowledge and levity.

Oh, and learn to post, you top-posting f****it.

They used to piss me off, but now i know the real reason for them..

Which is, if you are involved in a crash, and the emergency services see a "baby on board" sign they are obliged to search the car.

IIRc it followed an isntance when a baby was left in a car, after it was thrown from its baby seat into the foot well, and covered over by some other things.

Tom

You're new to usenet aren't you?

Don't top post.

The message from "Tom Burton" contains these words:

Fine - but how often do people take them off when the baby's not in the car?

No. The emergency services treat these ludicrous stickers with the contempt they deserve.

The presence of a sticker *in no way* indicates whether or not there is child in the car, since 99% of the stickers are left in place by the brain-dead drivers even when a child is not travelling in the car.

Indeed, the presence of an erroneous sticker could involve a resuer in a long & fruitless search for a mythical infant, when there could be injured real people needing attention.

MH.

As you've just done? Use your killfile and shut up.

IMHO the one and only way to sort this mess out is handbags at dawn :-)

THats more what I was getting at.